The Do Gaming League (DGL) Summer Leg has officially ended and the playoffs have started. For the next month, players will battle it out for position in the Winter Leg. Playoffs determine ranks (seedings) for the next leg and give lower division teams a chance to get into higher divisions. League Director, Robert ‘Infy’ Hart gives us a rundown on how playoffs work.

The DGL has absolutely exploded this year and it’s no easy task to keep track of everything going on. With over 4000 entries, 11 game titles and hundreds of teams the previously shorter playoff period has expanded and simplified thanks to the amazing team of DGL admins. Robert ‘Infy’ Hart is at the head of the operation and kindly explains how the playoffs will work this year.

They are relatively easy to understand. In games with an existing structure (Premier to First and Second Division), you will see the top teams from one division playing against the worst teams from the division above them. It’s a round robin stage, so they are placed into groups and have four weeks to play everyone in their group. Depending on their specific game, the top teams per group in the playoffs will be promoted and the rest will not.

A good example is the BF3 Premier Playoff. Here you see four teams from Premier and four teams from First division. Two Premier teams and two first division teams per group. The top two per group are promoted.

A second example is what we call the “breakthrough” Playoffs. This playoff is where teams from the second division (aka open division), fight for a spot in the First Division.

So you have four teams from the first division being challenged by eight teams from the second division. The top 2 per group are promoted.

Then we’ve got titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 which does not have existing structure. All the teams are in one large division at the moment.

In their playoff the top two per group qualified. These are really the best 20 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 teams playing against each other in the next four weeks. They are split into two groups of 10 teams and must play two games a week. So we’re really putting them through the paces by testing not only their in-game skill, but also their management skills. We don’t want teams who lack the right management skills inside our premier divisions.

If you’d like to check out who’s made it into the playoffs and when they’ll be playing, head on over to the links below.